Big Macs all round

Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the music critic Alex Ross are among the recipients of this year's MacArthur Fellowship, or 'genius grant'. Awarded every year to between 20 and 40 exceptionally gifted US citizens, the fellowships are each worth $500,000 over five years, a sum that makes most literary awards seem paltry. Adichie, who was in her native Lagos taking a bath when she heard the news, said: 'I like to say that America is like my distant uncle who doesn't remember my name but occasionally gives me pocket money. That phone call filled me with an enormous affection for my uncle!' The Browser has no doubt that it did.

Six of the best

The Browser has been enjoying the minimalist pleasures of One Life. Six Words. What's Yours? (Harper), Smith Magazine's compendium of six-word memoirs by assorted writers, comedians, actors and ordinary folk. The form favours the wry; perhaps Toby Litt's faux-confessional 'My first proper girlfriend: Emily Brontë' or AL Kennedy's characteristically terse 'Single typist: laugh till I cry'. In this setting John Banville's offering - 'Should have lived more, written less' - is rather touching, particularly compared to Jeffrey Archer's stern warning: 'I do not intend to mellow.' The Browser's favourite? Alan Titchmarsh's cheerfully bathetic 'Yorkshire, Surrey, Hampshire, Isle of Wight.' Feeling inspired? Submit your own at smithmag.net.

The Earth didn't move

William Trevor, Ali Smith and Anne Enright were among those practitioners of the black art of the short story lured to Charleston last week for Small Wonder, the only festival dedicated to the form. But though a beaming Enright was full of praise for the pleasures the short story affords, she did admit that pleasure isn't always on offer for her characters. 'A review in the New York Times said that bad sex was a particularly rich topic for me. But my stories are full of good sex,' she protested. 'It's just good sex with the wrong people.' The Browser knows exactly what she means.